The Windows Server Notebook

There’s a lot to take in at Microsoft’s annual technical learning event, and you can’t describe it all in words. Here are some of the memorable visual stimuli that we saw during our visit to Orlando. See something else? Let us know in the comments, or on Twitter (@WindowsTT).

If you stay at a conference hotel, you've got to be ready for conference ads everywhere - including on the room key.

Microsoft’s TechEd event is all about learning…but not always the kind you think. Our first day in Orlando came complete with a lot of new knowledge, and not just about the availability of the new Windows Intune, CTP2 of System Center 2012 SP1 and Hyper-V Server 2012 (the Release Candidate).

If you missed out on the fun, consider this your review session:

1) Speed thrills. Microsoft Virtualization Program manager Jeff Woolsey got the biggest cheer of the Day 1 keynote (unless you count the one guy excited about PowerShell cmdlets) with his move of a 10 GB file in just 10 seconds using Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V. Attendees were sufficiently impressed; Woolsey also spent the better part of an hour answering Hyper-V questions after his two marathon sessions later in the day.

2)Mark Russinovich is (relatively) hilarious. The Windows Azure Technical Fellow’s part of the opening keynote was full of laughs. Sample joke: “No, we haven’t been hacked; Azure really does support Linux as a guest OS.” (You had to be there.)

3)Live crowdsourcing is dangerous. The Azure web app that Microsoft’s Scott Guthrie created during the keynote (try it out here: http://www.messagescott.com) opened up a message box to the crowd, which led to some “special” notes displayed on the main screen, from a tongue-in-cheek SQL injection to a possibly sincere question: “Who farted?”

4)Apple is ok. Microsoft folks have made a point of showing multiple demos on iPhones so far, putting their money where their mouth is in terms of supporting all manner of devices (though attendees did hear about “user-centric” management via System Center a number of times — and the new management suite was a popular topic among attendees). The move made some sense, given all the Macbooks and iPads in the crowd.

5) PowerShell is getting real. Ok, it’s not exactly new knowledge that PowerShell is becoming a more significant part of Microsoft systems. But the fact that TechEd had to add a second session of Don Jones and Jeffrey Snover’s “PowerShell Crash Course” (and still saw it packed to the brim) shows that IT pros are really starting to understand that not learning it could be detrimental to their careers.

6)People are getting testy about tests. Not everyone understands how (or why) Microsoft has changed its certification program, but the consensus is that the soon-to-be-retired MCITP will not be missed. In the meantime, plenty of folks were cramming for and taking all manner of tests during Day 1, more to boost the resume than anything else.

7) Twitter is complicated. The Birds of a Feather session on “Social Media for Business” included some spirited discussions about the pros and cons of supporting social media activity from an IT perspective — with security and governance (particularly in healthcare and government) the biggest drawbacks, and improved feedback and research the biggest advantages. The most unique insight: The expansion of social media is akin to the move from single-core processors (individual thinking) to multi-core processors (where it’s all about the group).

8 ) There’s no such thing as “trying too hard” at a vendor booth. Raffles, card tricks, a guy on a unicycle wrapped in a straitjacket (seriously) – there were few lengths to which vendors wouldn’t go to attract a few more attendees to their booths. At least there were no “booth babes” that we could see.

Don’t you feel a whole lot smarter? Now, if we could just learn about the official release dates for Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8…

Microsoft is ringing in the summer season with seven bulletins in its latest Patch Tuesday announcement. IT pros should be on the lookout for three critical bulletins, patching Internet Explorer, .NET framework and Microsoft operating systems, to be released next week.

The bulletins will address 25 vulnerabilities, according to a post on a Microsoft security blog. Three of the bulletins will respond to issues with elevation of privilege, while the other four will deal with remote code execution.

The patches come at a time of heightened attention to security, given the Flame malware that exploited Windows Update systems in the Middle East. However, experts say that Flame shouldn’t pose too big of a threat to enterprises.

Though the June notification includes about as many fixes as previous months in 2012, it does appear to be heavy on server updates (with three critical bulletins applied to Windows Server 2003 and 2008) as compared to last month. Check back for a full report and analysis next week.

As anyone who’s been to TechEd will attest, the event is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. With hundreds of technical sessions, workshops, labs and vendors, the annual Microsoft event doesn’t lack quantity. But what’s actually worth paying attention to?

Thanks to the timing of the event, the published agenda and the tarot cards found lying around the TechTarget office, we have a few informed guesses regarding what attendees can expect to hear a lot about, and where Microsoft wants the industry conversation to go. Here are the top topics we’ll be watching:

Windows Server 2012

With the recent name change from Windows Server 8, there’s a renewed anticipation for Microsoft’s upcoming server OS – and heightened expectations for all the things the company claims it can do. Server and Tools Business president Satya Nadella will be one of the featured keynote speakers at the show, and he’ll likely hammer on all of the many documented improvements within Server 2012, from enhancements to Hyper-V and PowerShell to the new Resilient File System. There are also 72 technical sessions in the Windows Server track, which should sate folks eager to play with the Release Candidate, available now.

Windows 8

It’s no secret that Microsoft is betting big on Windows 8, its “reimagined,” “fast and fluid” new client operating system. With the next iteration – dubbed the Release Preview – now available, you can bet it’ll be a major point of emphasis for many speakers, if not for the IT pros who remain skeptical of how the touch-centric interface will translate to the enterprise. The agenda includes technical sessions on Windows 8 deployment, Metro-style app delivery, Windows To Go and more. Developers will have plenty to chew on as well: Visual Studio corporate vice president Jason Zander will be speaking during Monday’s keynote session, and Antoine LeBlond, corporate vice president for Windows Web Services (with a focus on the Windows Store) takes the stage on Tuesday.

It’s pretty difficult to avoid the topic of consumerization and BYOD programs at any conference these days, and for good reason: Any organization that isn’t dealing with it now will soon need to or risk being beaten over the head by iPad-wielding employees. One of the main ways that Microsoft is addressing the new reality is through improved device management. The revamped Windows Intune, which will purportedly give IT the ability to manage and deliver applications to iOS and Android devices in addition to Windows devices, will be featured in demos and discussions throughout the week (as will System Center Configuration Manager 2012). Expect to hear about Microsoft’s “user-centric” management model a lot, and get explanations as to why Windows RT tablets don’t need to join Active Directory domains.

Though Microsoft’s updated systems management suite got plenty of time in the spotlight during the Management Summit in April, IT pros are looking to learn more about how to better monitor and respond to increasingly complex environments. Many of the suite’s most significant products, including Virtual Machine Manager, Operations Manager and Orchestrator, will get dedicated technical sessions, and should be touted as ways to tie together many of the topics mentioned above.

Office

We’ve heard very little about how things are going with Office 365, Microsoft’s answer to Google Apps, and maybe that’s for a reason. But the roadmap should become a little clearer during TechEd, as there are several sessions scheduled that cover the cloud-based productivity suite in depth, including its tie-ins to the Sharepoint collaboration platform (and we may get more details on the new government-specific version). Though there’s nothing listed, we might also hear something about Office 15, which will reportedly be delivered to Windows devices before anything else.

Will you be at TechEd North America 2012? If so, what are you looking to learn? If not, what would you like us to cover? The SearchWindowsServer.com team will be on the ground in Orlando, delivering news and reactions from the event. Follow us on Twitter (@WindowsTT) for live updates.

IT pros eager to get their hands on the latest build of Windows Server 2012 won’t have to wait until June. Today, Microsoft made the Release Candidate of its new server operating system available for download on its TechNet website today in both 64-bit ISO and VHD versions. The new version comes at least a few days earlier than expected based on comments the company made in April.

It’s unclear just what has changed since the beta version of the software was released at the end of February. As we dig into the latest release, check out what we know so far about Windows Server 2012 (aka Windows Server 8).

Also available today is the Windows 8 Release Preview, whose availability was leaked via a (subsequently deleted) Microsoft blog post yesterday. The new version of Windows 8 will reportedly include Flash in the new Metro-based Internet Explorer 10.

Will you download the Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate or the Windows 8 Release Preview? What do you hope has changed?

Microsoft and the word “open” have a long history of being mutually exclusive, but that’s no longer the case.

Earlier this month, the company said it would support open-source operating system FreeBSD in its Windows Server Hyper-V products. According to a post on its Openness blog, Microsoft partnered with NetApp and Citrix to develop high-performance drivers for Hyper-V. It also enlisted the help of Insight Global, Inc., a technical staffing organization, to develop VMBUS drivers for the project.

Of course, this news came as a big plus for FreeBSD users, but the sole comment on the Microsoft Openness blog clamored for other platform support.

“Now, I’m waiting [for Microsoft to give] support to [D]ebian,” the commenter wrote.

The drivers will be released later this year in the vague “summer” window.

The company tackled seven issues in VMM 2012, including fixing a behavior where a parent VHD wouldn’t be deleted when the virtual machine is deleted and performance issues that arise when creating or deleting virtual machines. The console update also fixes an issue where it would stop responding when sorting virtual machines.

Redmond fixed up a pair of issues in System Center App Controller 2012, including an incorrect single sign-on behavior and a bug with SQL database configuration.

System Center Operations Manager adds a new feature: support for Oracle Solaris 11. It also fixes 17 bugs with Windows monitoring and three issues with Linux and Unix monitoring.

Microsoft has complete release notes for the rollup update, with instructions on how to install. Applying the updates? Let us know if this fixes anything pressing for you in the comments or on Twitter @WindowsTT.

IT pros can now get a glimpse of the future, as Microsoft teased its monthly patches in its Security Bulletin Advance Notification on Thursday.

There are three critical fixes planned for this month’s Patch Tuesday, which address vulnerabilities in Windows Server, the .NET framework, Silverlight and Microsoft Office. Four bulletins — deemed important – deal with Microsoft Office and all versions of Windows.

Wolfgang Kandek, CTO at Qualys, notes that this year has been more consistent than past years, with an average of six to nine bulletins compared with the “more bursty release mode” of previous years. Including this month, Microsoft has released one fewer patch this year — 35, compared with 36 in 2011.

As an IT admin, do you like the consistent numbers of bulletins so far this year? Or, are you superstitious and wish no one would point it out? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter @WindowsTT.